Two years later, on June 25, 1999, Brand and Dunn, who had been appointed the director of the informatics program, found themselves pitching the idea of the establishment of the School of Informatics on the IU Bloomington and IUPUI campuses to the IU Board of Trustees. Five degrees would be offered: an undergraduate degree in informatics, and four master’s degrees in: bioinformatics, chemical informatics, health informatics, and human-computer interaction. 

The BOT unanimously approved the decision, as did the Indiana Commission for Higher Education later that summer. The School of Informatics was officially born.

Now, the real work needed to be done.

A school is useless if it doesn’t have students to teach, and Dunn needed to convince people that the School of Informatics was a place that could launch careers. Everything needed to be explained, especially the term “informatics,” which wasn’t widely known at the time.

“It was a difficult sell,” Dunn says. “Not always, but it was hard. I gave a lot of talks about informatics, and there was a lot of explaining. In the end, that was a plus because it made it sound exciting. There were no preconceptions.”

It also became clear that informatics could build bridges and help students pursue their passion. Dunn remembers speaking to a student from California who wanted to pursue a major in fine arts. Her parents wouldn’t allow it, but they were accepting of the idea of her majoring in informatics with a cognate in fine arts.

"Everyone was happy," Dunn says.

There also was an entrepreneurial spirit in the early days of the School, one that isn’t often seen in higher education. Dunn traveled to speak with IU alumni and IT groups about the benefits of the school for students. An administrative assistant, Susan Quinn, was finally added to the staff, and Wendy Elliott was brought on as a secretary. The trio worked to promote the school to students, both new and from other majors on campus.

“It was kind of a ‘Build it, and they will come’ approach,” Dunn says. “We weren’t actively poaching other program’s students, but we didn’t turn them down.”

The School of Informatics first offered classes in the fall of 2000 with a handful of faculty members who were already at IU and two visiting professors fresh off earning their Ph.D.s. The next year, more faculty members came onboard, but all the faculty members were affiliated with other schools or programs at IU. Enrollment continued to grow, and classes were held at various locations across campus, including in Sycamore Hall and Eigenmann Hall.

The spring of 2002 was a milestone for the School of Informatics. In April, Bill Aspray was hired as the first full professor at the school. One month later, the School conferred its first degrees to 22 graduates. The School boasted 152 students, and it was clear a single home was needed.

More faculty members were hired in the fall of 2002, and in January 2003, the former Alpha Omicron Pi sorority house on the corner of 10th Street and Woodlawn Ave. was renovated and brought the School of Informatics under one roof for the first time. That spring, funding from the Indiana legislature was earmarked for the school, providing the solid foundation that was needed for the school to expand.

Faculty members were hired from various backgrounds. Christopher Raphael, now a professor of informatics, was studying music as part of the math department. Jeff Bardzell was hired to be an assistant professor in human-computer interaction but held a Ph.D. in comparative literature. Nathan Ensmenger, who would go on to become the chair of informatics and is currently an associate professor at Luddy, holds a Ph.D. in history and the sociology of science. Aspray’s educational background was in the history of science.

The range of backgrounds also made the School of Informatics unique in its blend of technology with the humanities. Researchers who didn’t feel at home elsewhere suddenly found a home in Bloomington.

It also gave the school a fun reputation.

“We were the School of Informatics: The School for Misfits,” Dunn laughs.

Faculty members who would become the backbone of the School over the next 15 years were hired. Erik Stolterman, now the senior executive associate dean at Luddy, was hired, as was Distinguished Professor Geoffrey Fox, who came to IU from the California Institute of Technology. Distinguished Professor of Informatics and Computer Science Filippo Menczer was hired during this time period as well, and Professor of Informatics L. Jean Camp was brought onboard.

The slow but steady growth of the school also allowed a family atmosphere to be fostered, one that continues to be a hallmark of the Luddy School. The “can-do” attitude of the early days and the tight quarters of the Informatics East and West buildings meant there were plenty of opportunities for students to get to know one another well, and faculty and staff were working together on a closer level than might be found elsewhere.

“One thing that really stands out and has since I’ve been here is the way the staff has always been team-oriented and really care about the students,” said Dennis Groth, one of the earliest hires by the School of Informatics and now the interim dean of the Luddy School. “They always have tried to do the best they possibly can for the students, and that is something that hasn’t changed even as we’ve grown as a school or with the addition of other programs.”

In March 2005, the School of Informatics merged with the Department of Computer Science, which had long been part of the College of Arts and Sciences. That merger created a school that featured more than 70 faculty and nearly 1,000 students, but the computer science program would remain housed at Lindley Hall across campus. That same month, it was announced that the school would offer a Ph.D. in informatics, creating what was believed to be the first doctoral degree program in informatics in the world.

“The School of Informatics was the cool place,” says Associate Professor and Chair of Informatics Katie Siek, who earned her M.S. and Ph.D. from IU in the mid-2000s. “There were flags around campus walkways and advertisements in the student newspaper daily talking about how informatics would lead students to the future. Within departments, it felt family-like—we had social spaces in Lindley where we had informal lunches with staff, faculty, and students. The space was decorated for each season and had a bookshelf with photo albums of past faculty student kickball games. I knew most of the staff by name, what they did, and something about what they liked to do outside of work.

The school underwent its first major leadership transition in the summer of 2007 when Dunn retired and handed the reins to Bobby Schnabel, the vice provost/assistant chancellor for academic and campus technology and a professor of computer science at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Schnabel instituted a strategic planning process that helped the School of Informatics mature. He reimagined the School’s approach to research, undergraduate and graduate education, and faculty affairs, and he made improving diversity a priority. The planning created growth with a direction, and the Dean’s Advisory Council was asked to consider the School’s role in economic development.

Maureen Biggers was hired as the assistant dean for diversity, inclusion, and education, and she was tasked with increasing enrollment and expanding opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities in computing. That effort built the Luddy School’s reputation as a welcoming environment for a diverse population from around the globe.

“People in the school ultimately care about getting things done and working together,” Siek says. “I’m thankful for the efforts of our senior women faculty who created programs to improve diversity and inclusion and continue to work to ensure everyone feels safe to innovate.”

The School of Informatics continued to expand with changes coming almost yearly. In 2008, the former Beta Theta Pi fraternity house just east of the school was renovated and became the Informatics East building. A year later, the school on the IU Bloomington campus saw its first name change when it became the School of Informatics and Computing. The school on the IUPUI campus remained the School of Informatics. Then, in 2010, a 12,000-square-foot connector was completed, creating an Informatics complex that was home to more than 100 faculty.

Students from around the Bloomington campus continued to find a home at SoIC. Brad Becker, a senior in the Class of 2010, initially was a business major, but he switched to informatics after exploring what the school had to offer. The continuing growth of technology and his interest in computers made the decision an easy choice.

“A technical degree made sense for me finding a job right out of college,” Becker told the Indiana Daily Student when he graduated that year. “The informatics school did a really good job of helping people find jobs as compared to my friends with other majors.”

Becker went on to find a job as a consultant in Atlanta before returning to southern Indiana to continue his career in the tech industry.

The next major development for the School came in October 2012 when the School of Informatics and Computing agreed to a merger with the School of Library and Information Science. The merger, which had been discussed as early as 2003, combined two world-renowned schools into a single unit that brought the study of information and computation closer together on the IU campus. It also prompted a shift to the SoIC name throughout the IU system.

Kay Connelly is the associate dean for research at Luddy, and she earned her undergraduate degree in computer science from IU in 1995. After finishing her master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, she was the first hire of IU’s Pervasive Technology Institute and was one of the first women hired in the computer science department.

“With all the structural changes, there was a reason for every one of them,” Connelly says. “Computer science had a very long culture, as did ILS. Informatics was kind of this Wild West where everything wasn’t as established. Nobody could be set in their ways once they came together, and that is a good thing. If you’re going to be at the forefront of technology, you have to be nimble. Having a school with a nimble structure allows us to pivot when something new and exciting is happening. We don’t know what technology will look like in 10 years, but our school will be able to adapt because of how it has been built.”

By 2014, the explosive growth of the school was evident. Undergraduate enrollment had nearly tripled over the previous seven years, from 400 in 2007 to nearly 1,200. The number of graduate students had more than doubled from 306 to 740 during that same span. The vision of computing and technology being the next big opportunity in higher education, one that would produce high-paying, in-demand jobs, had proven to be correct.

But SoIC wasn’t about to rest on its laurels. Schnabel and now-IU President McRobbie were investigating the possibility of adding what they described as an information technology systems engineering program to the Bloomington campus. SoIC also was looking to expand beyond the Informatics East and West buildings with plans being discussed about a new building on Woodlawn Ave, and Schnabel suggested a new round of faculty hiring was on tap to handle the increased enrollment as well as the myriad areas of research that had been embraced by the school.

From biology to business, geography, economics, security, artificial intelligence, programming languages, software engineering, information science, library science, and more, students at the School of Informatics and Computing could find a passion and blend it with technology.

Schnabel presided over the largest expansion period in school history, and research funding at SoIC doubled to more than $20 million annually during his tenure. He was a driving force behind the planned construction of what would become spectacular Luddy Hall, the $39 million home for the school named after tech entrepreneur and former IU student Fred Luddy, who donated $8 million to the effort. Schnabel also oversaw the addition of data science as a degree program and pushed for the establishment of the Intelligent Systems Engineering program, the first-ever engineering program in IU history.

Schnabel announced in the fall of 2015 that he would be moving to another opportunity as the CEO of the Association of Computing Machinery, and the school would be undergoing another transition at the top. Brad Wheeler, now a James H. Rudy Professor of Information Systems at the Kelley School of Business at IU, took on the role as interim dean until Raj Acharya, the founding director of the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Penn State, was tapped to lead the school into the future.

“The School’s research is the wave of the future,” Acharya said when he took over in July 2016. “The really exciting and challenging part is the diversity of the disciplines. You have faculty from liberal arts, science, math, social sciences, and now engineers. To take this diverse bunch of faculty and students… I view this as a mélange. It’s a salad bowl. I believe that each one should maintain its own flavor and individuality, but the whole reflects the best in everything. I think the excitement and the challenges are the same—to work with the mélange.”

The Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering welcomed its first cohort in the fall of 2016, and in August 2017, SoIC once again underwent a name change. Acharya announced that to reflect the importance of ISE to the school, SoIC would be re-named the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering.

By spring 2018, SICE had become one of the largest schools on the IU Bloomington campus, and the opening of Luddy Hall was the highlight of the newly redesigned Woodlawn Ave. corridor. The 124,000-square-foot, open-concept building brought the departments of computer science, information and library science, and intelligent systems engineering under one roof for the first time in school history, and it created an innovative space for collaboration. A week-long celebration of the opening of the building drew SICE alumni back to Bloomington, and the unveiling of Amatria, a “sentient” work of art from Canadian artist Philip Beesley on the fourth floor of Luddy Hall, gave SICE an iconic presence on campus.

The continuing expansion of students at SICE led to the annual Student Recognition Celebration being held in the IU Auditorium in May 2019, where Acharya conferred bachelor’s degrees in computer science and informatics, as well as master’s degrees in computer science, informatics, data science, human-computer interaction, information science, library science, and secure computing. For the first time in school history, master’s degrees were awarded in intelligent systems engineering. Ph.D.s in computer science, informatics, and information science also were awarded.

SICE had undergone a lot of changes over the years, but there were more to come. In September 2019, the Informatics East and West Buildings were renamed Myles Brand Hall, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the school as well as the 10th anniversary of Brand’s passing.

Less than one month later, McRobbie announced the second-largest private gift in IU history: a transformative $60 million donation from Fred Luddy to establish a multidisciplinary initiative that would fund the construction of the Luddy Center for Artificial Intelligence; create endowed chairs, professorships, and fellowships; and fund graduate and undergraduate scholarships. The focus of the gift was on artificial intelligence, especially AI as it relates to digital health.

In honor of Luddy’s generosity, the name of the school was changed once again to the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering.

“I was involved in establishing the school in 1999, and I have been delighted to see it grow, expand in its disciplines, and improve in quality over the last two decades,” McRobbie said. “It is fitting that it will now be named after its greatest benefactor, who has given so much support to the school over many years and whose record of achievement on information technology brings such distinction to IU.”

Ground was broken on the Luddy Center for Artificial Intelligence in February 2020, which will be part of the planned Mind, Brain, and Machine Quadrangle that includes the Psychological and Brain Sciences Building, the Multidisciplinary Science Building II, the cognitive science program at the nearby Geology Building, the Luddy School’s Myles Brand Hall, and Luddy Hall. The $22.8 million project is expected to be completed in August 2021.

After nearly four years on the job, Acharya stepped down as dean of the Luddy School in March 2020 to become IU’s associate vice president for research and AI innovation, and the school went back to its roots when Dennis Groth, the vice provost for undergraduate education and one of the early professors hired by Dunn at the school, was named interim dean.

“I’m very excited and honored to be taking on the role of interim dean for the Luddy School,” Groth said. “Our school has accomplished so much in its 20-year history, and with the construction of the state-of-the-art Luddy Center for Artificial Intelligence beginning this spring, we’re poised to continue our leadership role in technology and innovation.”

Just days after the announcement, Groth and the entire IU community were forced to adapt to the coronavirus outbreak that continues to impact the entire world. The Luddy School’s researchers sprang into action to help in the battle, using all the tools at their disposal—from computer modeling and AI to makerspaces and labs to supercomputing, data visualization, and more—to fight the pandemic. For the first time, the Luddy School moved all its classes to a virtual environment, and the annual graduation celebration was held online as well.

The first class of undergraduates in intelligent systems engineering were part of the 1,100-plus graduates, and Groth told the new alumni that the nature of their education has put them in a position to make a difference.

“Technology is about rapid change and learning to innovate to overcome obstacles,” Groth said. “These are the skills you’ve been given during your time here, and you have found yourself uniquely prepared to handle our current challenges. Whether you’re graduating with a degree in informatics, computer science, data science, information science, or library science, whether you’re earning your master’s or Ph.D., or are part of the first-ever intelligent systems engineering graduating class in IU’s 200-year history, you are leaving with the tools needed to adapt to any situation.”

Connelly agrees.

“I tell my students that when I was an undergraduate, I never would have imagined doing what I’m doing now because it didn’t exist,” Connelly says.

From those early days in a turret to an alumni base that is more than 22,000 strong, the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering has shown the ability to focus on what will be instead of what is currently possible. The school’s slogan—“We See Tomorrow”—is on the walls of Luddy Hall, and it has long been the guiding principle. As the next-generation technology such as AI, machine learning, and virtual and augmented reality emerge, Luddy researchers and the students they teach will be at the forefront of innovation, creating the vision that will change the world.

Media Contact

Ken Bikoff
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Phone: (812) 856-6908
kbikoff@indiana.edu